Chemistry Demonstrations

Resources and links for use in planning chemical displays and demonstrations. Provided by Dr Andrea Sella.

Warning : As with most things in life, the more dangerous something appears, the more fun it will be perceived to be. With chemical demonstrations, quite innocuous looking procedures can turn very nasty. Be careful . Check your sources carefully - material on the Web may not be fully tested or assessed. Discuss everything you want to try with someone experienced before you try anything. Use safety shields and eye protection. You are responsible for anything you try, 'cos you're the one who will have to live with the damage you do to yourself and to others.

Books to read
Primary sources

• B. Z. Shakashiri, Chemical Demonstrations: A Handbook for Teachers in Chemistry ; University of Wisconsin: Madison; Vols 1 - 4. This is the standard textbook.
• H W Roesky, K Möckel Chemical Curiosities ; VCH: Weinheim, 1986. Great demos here, and excellent anecdotes and historical connections.
• T Lister, Classic Chemistry Demonstrations , Royal Society of Chemistry ; London 1995. Drab typography camouflages lots of classic and not so classic demonstrations.
• Summerlin, Lee R. and James L. Ealy. Chemical Demonstrations: A Sourcebook for Teachers . 2nd ed. Vol. 1 (Print-Non-Fiction). American Chemical Society (BORE), 1988.
• The Journal of Chemical Education. Look for their Tested Demonstrations pages.

Other books

• Paul Depovere, Oh La Chimie!, Dunod, Paris , 2004. Jokes, anecdotes,cartoons and demonstrations. Some are classics and some are real novelties based on the recent literature.see also Paul Walton's paper "On the Use of Chemical Demonstration"
• E J Hartung, The Screen Projection of Chemical Experiments ; Melbourne UP, Melbourne, 1953. This is an amazing little book, long out of print.
• H. Alyea and F. Dutton, Tested demonstrations in chemistry ,  Journal of Chemical Education,  6th ed. Easton, Pa. 1990 (1965). Wise words from the Master.
• F. R. Kreissl, O. Krätz, Feuer und Flamme, Schall und Rauch , Wiley VCH: Weinheim 1999. A history of the Chemical Demonstration lecture with wonderful recipes and ideas. A must have, if you can read German.

Web pages to check out (opening in new windows)

• La Magia della Chimica - Antonio Floriano's Chemical Wizardry (Palermo) in Italian
• SCIENCE IS FUN - The Shakashiri Lab (Wisconsin)
• Madison Wisconsin Demonstration Lab - excellent pages and recipes
• The Delights of Chemistry - The Leeds Lecture Demo Pages - Great pictures and videos
• General Chemistry Demonstrations - Interesting recipes from Indiana
• Chemical Demonstrations for Classrooms and Displays - a few classic recipes
• The Reaction of Nitric Oxide with Carbon Disulfide - UCL's fire and brimstone
• Demonstration Lectures at UCL - a partial list of lectures we do.
• Characterization of Organic Illumination systems - a careful study
• A Tribute to Hubert Alyea - One of the Fathers of Chemical Demonstrations
• How generate gases in syringes - More Alyea worship
• And why not have alook at some Physics Demonstrations?
• Regensburg Demonstrations - top site with loads of videos.
• David Katz's superb recipes and resources.
• The delights of chemistry - great photos, recipes and video clips.
• Demonstrations for General Chemistry.
• Mr Styles - Great videos and recipes from a former UCL student, now an enthusiastic teacher.
• The TDHome Page - a big listing of demonstration resources

If you know of other useful/interesting pages, email me the URL.

This page last modified 24 February, 2010